HC 103H, Honors College World
Literature
The Literary Self: Romantic, Modern, and Post-Modern
TOPICS are the same as the written exam (see below); choose one and sign up for it (sign-up sheets on my office door)
TIMING is as follows:
for the 12:30 class, 10:00 to noon, on TUESDAY, JUNE 6 in PACIFIC 8 (unfortunately, Chapman 307 is already engaged).
For the 9:30 class, 3:15 to 5:15, on WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7 in CHAPMAN 303 (our conference room)
GRADING will be based on (1) ability to trace the theme throughout the term's work, (2) depth and precision of commentary, (3) ability to keep conversational thread alive and popping.
PREPARATION of some sort is important; feel free to spend time talking with other students before the exam.
EVERYONE will have a chance to speak; we must all be alert to balance in the conversation.
Take a two-hour block of time and answer ONE question, writing for two hours (approx. 1000 words: no more than 4 typed, double-spaced pages or two blue books). Specificity counts: plan your essay ahead of time (planning time doesn't count towards the two hours, nor does spell check). Please keep in mind that the exercise is designed to foster your assessment of our texts' interrelationships and to provide closure for the term's work.
SILENCE
Estha and Gus are our silent, late-Twentieth Century males: "Quietness and Emptiness fitted together like stacked spoons" (God of Small Things 311). Werther is our early, unbearably loquacious Romantic male. Heathcliff isn't loquacious, Gregor can't make himself understood, and Uchendu says "Never kill a man who says nothing" (Things Fall Apart 140). But all Artie wants to do is hear his father speak . . . and then at times he doesn't. How do our different texts treat silence and speech, and do our two silenced males indicate something about the postmodern literary voice? How is has the "voice" of literature changed over the last two centuries? Who's doing the talking now?
CHANGE
Think about Roy's repeated phrase, "Things can change in a day." How sudden is Werther's suicide? How instantaneous is Gregor's transformation? Why is it important to notice how quickly things change? How have our texts dealt with the issue of change? Which is more pernicious--sudden change or gradual change, according to our texts? How do readers change, according to our texts?
THE ROMANTIC
"The whole Romantic sham, Bernard!" says Hannah, "It's what happened to the Enlightenment, isn't it? A century of intellectual rigour turned in on itself. A mind in chaos suspected of genius. In a setting of cheap thrills and false emotion. . . The decline from thinking to feeling, you see" (27). How have our texts defined the Romantic temperament? Which ones would you call "Romantic"? How Romantic is The Metamorphosis? or The God of Small Things? Was Romanticism over before it began? Was it always at a "viable, die-able age" (God of Small Things 154)?
CHAOS
How do our different texts figure chaos? Think of Werther's internal chaos, or the chaos of ghetto life. What do our texts provide as a hedge against chaos? Think about Roy's description of the Gods of Big Things and Small Things (20) and the power of the Great Stories (218). Think about Hannah's encounters with chaos, or Gregor's ways to cope. Think about Things Fall[ing] Apart, or the chaos of life at Wuthering Heights. What is literature's relationship to chaos?
Silence Corrie 6-9758, Kelly 6-9210
Change Kim Bliss 484-2099, Brandon Cresswell 338-2454 x226, Joel Weber 6-9601, Lindsay 683-8258
The Romantic Arlie 579-1573
Chaos Greg Scott 687-6774, Wayne Bund 6-8708
Silence Jen Servi 6-9210
Change Nathaniel Hart 6-9651, Lisa N. Elliott, Todd Blevins, Derek Budzik, Andrew Barr 6-8095, Sarah Turnquist 349-9690, Jo Hedelman 6-9468, Aja 465-9662
The Romantic Windy Borman 684-0135, Paul Jaeger 6-9284, Emily Cooke 6-8776
Chaos Heather Goodwin 6-8821, Melanie Langlois 6-9480, Nathan Loveless 6-9859, Heather McConochie 431-0842, Marissa Jones 6-8470, Jenelle Bray 6-8354, Jessica Metcalfe 6-8773
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